Lassiter Wins Annual 'Backyard Brawl'

Trojan offense too much for Jackets

MARIETTA — Lassiter coach Jep Irwin wanted to see his guys play 48 minutes of football in its “Backyard Brawl” against Sprayberry.

He certainly got his wish as the Trojans raced out to a 42-3 halftime lead and kept the pressure on in the second half en route to a 49-10 non-region victory at Jim Frazier Stadium.

Quarterback Eddie Printz completed 16-of-24 passes for 268yards and four touchdowns, while Juwan Dickey had seven catches for 123 yards and a score for fifth ranked Lassiter (2-0). Ryan Jenkins totaled three receptions for 97 yards and two touchdowns, and Hakim Shahid rushed eight times for 46 yards and a score. Willie Police had five catches for 37 yards and a touchdown. Lane Jackman carried the ball 14 times for 106 yards and a score.

Defensively, Patrick Levandoski intercepted Torrey Richardson’s pass and ran it back 42 yards for a touchdown that put the Trojans in front 14-0 with 7:24 left in the first quarter.

“We didn’t have to punt until late in the second half, and I wanted the guys to start fast like we did last (week) and they did,” Irwin said. “The defense played well and held them right up until they scored at the end.

“I wanted them to play a 48-minute game, and that’s what they did. It’s about wanting to get up on people and staying up on them and we did that (Friday).”

The Trojans scored on six of their first eight drives, including touchdown passes of 46, 49, 33 and 11 yards, en route to the 42-3 halftime lead.

A 28-yard run from Jackman set up a 46-yard touchdown reception from Printz to Jenkins that put the Trojans in front 7-0 with 8:52 on the clock.

It took two plays and 15 seconds for the Trojans to go up 21-0 when Printz found Jenkins wide open for the 49-yard touchdown completion at the 5:36 mark of the first quarter.

Sprayberry got on the board with a 46-yard field goal from Rodrigo Blankenship to trim the Yellow Jackets deficit to 21-3 with 7:07 in the second period.

Dickey’s fingertip 39-yard catch set up Shahid for a 1-yard touchdown run and a 28-3 margin with 4:52 remaining in the half, and a 12-yard sack from John Corey forced Sprayberry to punt the ball with just over 2 minutes left in the half.

Printz capped an 8-play, 1:09 minute drive with a 33-yard toss to Dickey to extend the margin to 35-3, and Moe Nyang’s fumble recovery off a bad Sprayberry snap led to Police’s 11-yard touchdown reception that gave the Trojans their 42-3 lead with 46.3 seconds left until halftime.

“We just wanted to get after the quarterback and keep plugging the gaps,” Nyang said. “We have some good guys on defense and did what we had to do.”

Sprayberry’s first drive of the second half included a 12-yard run from Richardson and a 32-yard scamper from Young, but stalled at the Lassiter 22 after the Trojans’ defense kept the Yellow Jackets from converting a fourth-and-2.

On its first second half possession, Lassiter marched 67 yards on 16 plays — including 15 rushes plays — and scored off Jackman’s 2-yard score for a 49-3 margin.

Sprayberry failed to convert another long drive after it was stopped at the 1-yard line on a tackle for loss from Nyang, but the Yellow Jackets finally got in the end zone on their final possession when Young connected with Miles Wallace for a 27-yard touchdown with 21.6 left in the game.

Young rushed 14 times for 79 yards and Richardson had 15 carries for 68 yards. Young was 3-for-9 for 46 yards and a touchdown.

“Mistakes are magnified against good teams,” Sprayberry coach Billy Shackelford said. “And when you miss some coverages, blocks, reads and tackles, this is what happens.

“We have a bye week this week, and we’ll keep working. Every game is important, but the region games trump them all. We’re 0-3 now, but we were 0-3 in 2008 when we won the region championship, so we’ll keep plugging away.”

Penalties were the only factor favoring Sprayberry. The Yellow Jackets were flagged twice for 10 yards (both illegal procedure infractions), whereas the Trojans had 9 penalties for 80 yards (two of which were personal fouls giving the Jackets first downs).